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Magomed Umalatov now faces Neiman Gracie in the PFL welterweight semifinals at PFL 9 after original opponent Don Madge withdrew from the Aug. 23 event due to an injury, the promotion announced.

Gracie was originally slated to face Luca Poclit in a 170-pound alternate bout on the same card. With Gracie out, Poclit instead fights Eric Alequin.

PFL 9 takes place at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., and airs live on ESPN.

Gracie (13-5) did not initially make it the playoffs after going 1-1 in the PFL regular season. He defeated Madge via decision in June after losing an April match to Goiti Yamauchi.

Umalatov (16-0) has won seven fights in a row since joining PFL in 2021. He beat Andrey Koreshkov and Brennan Ward in this year’s welterweight regular season.

PFL also announced that Maxwell Djantou Nana and Shido Boris Esperanca are set to compete against yet-to-be-announced opponents on the preliminary portion of the card.

Check out the updated PFL 9 fight card below.

Main Card

• Brendan Loughnane vs. Kai Kamaka
• Magomed Umalatov vs. Neiman Gracie
• Gabriel Braga vs. Timur Khizriev
• Shamil Musaev vs. Murad Ramazanov

Preliminary Card

• Ray Cooper III vs. Mukhamed Berkhamov
• Eric Alequin vs. Luca Poclit
• Tyler Diamond vs. Enrique Barzola
• Brahyan Zurcher vs. James Gallagher
• Jesse Stirn vs. Jose Perez
• Maxwell Djantou Nana vs. TBD
• Shido Boris Esperanca vs. TBD

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The two Canelo Álvarez vs. Edgar Berlanga press conferences set to take place today and tomorrow will stream live on the PBC YouTube Page as Canelo Promotions presents a Mexican Independence Day weekend extravaganza taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas headlining a PBC Pay-Per-View event available on Prime Video.

Pound-for-pound great and Mexican superstar Canelo Álvarez and undefeated Puerto Rican knockout artist Edgar Berlanga will preview their upcoming showdown for Canelo’s unified WBC, WBA and WBO Super Middleweight World Titles at these press conferences.

The press conferences will also feature Cuban star and reigning WBA Middleweight World Champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara and hard-hitting two-division world champion and Puerto Rican star Danny “Swift” García ahead of their 12-round co-main event between two of this era’s most accomplished fighters.

TODAY! Monday, August 5 in New York beginning at

1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT

TOMORROW! Tuesday, August 6 in Los Angeles beginning at

4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT

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Shots fired
| BJPenn.com

The teams between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili have a history.

Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) Bantamweight title has only belonged to two men since UFC 259 in March 2021. While the former champion, Aljamain Sterling, historically saw his title reign begin in controversy via a fourth round disqualification, it ended definitively. The latter came thanks to a second round technical knockout from O’Malley at UFC 292 in August 2023 (watch highlights).

Bad blood boiled over between O’Malley and Sterling during their build, dripping onto the top contender waiting in the wings, Dvalishvili. “The Machine” now gets his chance to take the strap from O’Malley when they collide at Noche UFC next month (Sat., Sept. 14, 2024). However, Dvalishvil, Sterling, and O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, have all gotten into verbal exchanges online in recent weeks, keeping the feud alive and well.

“Initially, I thought it was because I said we’re going to target his nose in an interview, which isn’t a lie,” Welch told Submission Radio (h/t MMA Fighting). “I mean, it’s not a lie. I’ve never really said fighting words to those guys. But then Merab tweeted out and said, ‘Next time I see you, I’m going to take care of it,’ or something. And it’s like, come on, brother. I haven’t trained martial arts my whole life for a little 5-foot-4 guy to try to punk me out. I’ve trained my whole life and I’m only 34 years old. I’m six foot, 195 pounds. It’s like, alright, alright, well, we’ll see what happens.

“But that’s that’s besides the point,” he continued. “This is a huge fight. We got the No. 1 contender versus the champion of the world. That fight is going to happen 100 percent. ‘Sugar Show’ versus Merab, and we’re preparing and we’re more dialed in than we’ve ever been because Merab does pose a serious, serious threat.”

Sterling will more than likely be in the corner for Dvalishvili’s big opportunity. Had the pair not been best friends and longtime teammates, they’d have battled it out as one of Sterling’s title defenses.

Despite successfully moving to Featherweight after his title loss, Sterling has admitted to “saltiness” on occasion towards O’Malley or about the loss. From Welch’s perspective, their recent and continued spats are only evidence that that still exists.

“I think they’re still bitter,” Welch said. “They let the little curly-haired, funny guy who makes all these videos, who has tattoos on his face — Sean flat-lined [Sterling]. Sean punched him and dropped bombs on him, forced him to turtle up. You’ve got this world championship on the line and you’re fighting the ‘Sugar Show,’ I’m glad you were thinking about fighting me and not the fight you are in.”

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Conor McGregor is never going to let the beef die.

The former two-division UFC champion exploded on social media Monday after U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump named Khabib Nurmagomedov as his favorite fighter during an interview with gaming streamer Adin Ross. In a barrage of angry posts, McGregor called the former Republican nominee’s answer a “shocking” and “campaign ending decision” that “won’t go unnoticed on the [UFC] roster,” arguing that Trump should’ve picked an American fighter rather than the Dagestan-born former lightweight champion.

McGregor’s entire meltdown can be seen below.

McGregor, 36, and Nurmagomedov, 35, of course have plenty of history with one another.

The two former champs collided in an October 2018 grudge match at UFC 229 that remains the biggest pay-per-view event in MMA history, drawing more than 2 million buys. After an ugly lead-up that included McGregor infamously smashing a bus window with a dolly, Nurmagomedov dominated the Irishman en route to a fourth-round submission stoppage.

Afterward, with the bad blood still simmering, Nurmagomedov leapt over the cage and ignited a wild brawl with McGregor’s cornermen and team.

While Nurmagomedov retired in 2020 as an undefeated UFC champion, McGregor ostensibly continues to fight on. The controversial Irishman has dropped two of his three bouts in the years since the Nurmagomedov loss, and recently withdrew from a scheduled contest against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 after suffering a broken pinky toe.

Chandler continues to wait on the sidelines for the McGregor bout, which is expected to be re-booked in late 2024. So unsurprisingly, the American couldn’t help but chime in Monday.

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Islam Makhachev may have picked up where the great Khabib Nurmagomedov left off with dominating the lightweight division, but his legacy has also been continued by his own family.

There are a lot of parallels in the careers of Khabib and his younger cousin Umar Nurmagomedov.

Both have been incredibly dominant inside the Octagon but during their climbs, were held back by injuries and issues with finding opponents.

Eventually, “The Eagle” was undeniable and proved himself to be a top-tier lightweight and that’s what happened in the bantamweight division with Umar this past weekend.

His win over Cory Sandhagen means that just like Islam and his cousin before him, he’s arrived at the top at long last.

Javier Mendez Says Khabib Was A Better Grappler But Umar Nurmagomedov Is Already A Better Striker

In a recent interview with The Schmo, AKA head coach Javier Mendez was asked to compare Umar and Khabib as fighters, given where the undefeated 135-pound contender is at right now.

Mendez is very high on Umar’s potential and went on to say that with Islam being four years older than him, Khabib’s cousin could go on to claim the position of being the number 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world at some stage.

He spoke about what separates the two cousins, by running down which one has the edge in terms of their skill set and toughness.

“Well as far as skills at this juncture of their careers, that’s a tough one you hit me with. I would say that Khabib’s ground is still top notch. Umar’s ground is great but Khabib was just another level but again, Khabib’s stand up wasn’t up to where Umar’s is on par. But, as far as their mental, their mental is fairly comparable. Khabib’s chin’s granite, I’ve never seen anybody have a chin like Khabib. Umar has got a great chin as he proved from the last fight when he got dropped and he was able to go for the takedown as he was being dropped but I guess the chin level would have to go with Khabib but the mental toughness, I think they’re pretty equal, mental toughness. I mean Umar is a tough customer man.”

Read also: Umar Nurmagomedov ‘Not Happy’ With Performance Against Cory Sandhagen At UFC Fight Night Abu Dhabi: ‘I Thought I Would Maul Him’

Continue Reading Javier Mendez Chooses Between Khabib & Umar Nurmagomedov In Striking, Grappling, Mental Toughness, & Chin at MMA News.

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Terence Crawford pocketed a disclosed purse more than three times larger than now-former WBA champion Israil Madrimov for their boxing showdown this past Saturday.

Crawford, who became a four-division champion with a unanimous decision over Madrimov to capture the WBA junior middleweight title, earned a disclosed purse of $ 2,500,000 for his handiwork. Madrimov, competing in his 10th professional bout following an extensive and decorated amateur career, earned a $ 750,000 disclosed purse in the losing effort.

The California State Athletic Commission released the event’s salary report on Monday in the aftermath of Crawford vs. Madrimov, which took place at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium.

In addition to Crawford, one other fighter on the card crossed the seven-figure threshold with their disclosed purse — now-former WBA super lightweight champion Isaac Cruz earned a $ 1,500,000 disclosed payday for his stunning upset loss to Jose Valenzuela ($ 500,000) in the event’s co-headliner.

A complete list of the Crawford vs. Madrimov salaries can be seen below. As always, these figures do not represent a fighter’s total earnings, as certain sponsorship incomes, pay-per-view earnings, and other streams of income are not publicly disclosed.

• Terence Crawford ($ 2,500,000) def. Israil Madrimov ($ 750,000)
• Jose Valenzuela ($ 500,000) def. Isaac Cruz ($ 1,500,000)
• Andy Ruiz ($ 900,000) vs. Jarrell Miller ($ 450,000) ruled a majority draw
• Martin Bakole ($ 375,000) def. Jared Anderson ($ 660,000)
• David Morrell ($ 750,000) def. Radivoje Kalajdzic ($ 350,000)
• Andy Cruz ($ 200,000) def. Antonio Moran ($ 37,500)
• Steve Nelson ($ 50,000) def. Marcos Ramon Vazquez ($ 12,500)
• Ziyad Almaayouf ($ 40,000) vs. Michal Bulik ($ 10,000) ruled a majority draw

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